Homes are becoming more wired and connected with the proliferation of computing devices such as desktops, tablets, entertainment systems, and portable communication devices. As these computing devices evolve, many different ways have been introduced to allow users to interact with computing devices, such as through mechanical devices (e.g., keyboards, mice, etc.), touch screens, motion, and gesture. Another way to interact with computing devices is through natural language input such as speech.
The use of natural language input to interact with computing devices presents many challenges. One challenge concerns identifying the correct application to receive the input. Some devices, such as personal computers, smart phones, personal digital assistants, tablets, and such may have multiple applications that each act on commands provided by a user. The user may select an application to receive a command by clicking on a window, pressing an application icon on a touch screen, or otherwise explicitly indicating which application is the intended target for a command. However, if a user gives natural language commands to a computing device without indicating which application should receive and process the command the computing device may be unable to act on the command.
Accordingly, there is a need for techniques to address disambiguation of the correct target application for commands that are not directed to a specific application.